1. Chapter 1

I started out into the once-cloudy sky. I gazed at the moon. It now looked so much more defined. I could see each crater, each mare, each peak. Everything was now much more brilliant and beautiful. Every detail was clearer than the best telescope.

And it was a new moon.

How I could se the moon in perfect detail was a complete mystery to me. Many phenomenons in this new life were. But I excepted them all with open arms. How could I not with my loving, wonderful, perfect husband at my side? None of these wonders were new to him, he had had so long to learn about everything. But they would most likely dazzle me to the end of time.

I turned to the west, curious to see how well I would see the planets; Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.

Before I could find them, two stone cold, yet not uncomfortable arms wrapped around my waist.

Carlisle.

"What are you doing, Esme?" His soft, satin voice sounded in my ear. I shivered delicately.

I smiled. "Looking at the stars. Aren't they beautiful?"

"Yes, but they are no match for you."

If I was able to blush, I would be scarlet right now.

"Do you see that constellation there? The one that looks like a stick-figure of a woman?" He pointed to the sky. "It has a galaxy right next to it."

"Yes." The galaxy was magnificent. I had never seen this one before. But, how could I? I had been human, and I didn't spend time outside at night to look at the stars. The little that I knew had been seen in star maps in Ashland. But they did not reveal half of the stars that were visible to me.

"That is called Andromeda, or the Chained Woman. Her story is not a happy one. Her mother, Cassiopeia," he pointed to another constellation. "was a queen, a vain queen of Ethiopia. She was vain enough to say that her daughter, Andromeda, was more beautiful than all the Nereids, or water goddesses. The sea god, Poseidon did not take kindly to that, so he flooded the whole country. The queen, and her husband, King Cepheus, consulted an oracle. The oracle told them that the only way to appease the sea god was to sacrifice their daughter. They chained her to a rock in the ocean. They left her to die."

I was astonished. How could parents do that to their only child?

"Luckily for Andromeda, the hero Perseus was sailing the seas and came across her. He saved her."

"Yes, thank goodness that he saved her. That is a tragic tale, Carlisle."

"And it applies to us, in a way."

I thought about that. It was true. Carlisle had saved me from my almost certain death.

We stood there for an unmeasurable moment. His chin resting on the top of my head, his arms encircling my waist. I leaned back against him. We stood there, completely in love, gazing at the stars. At the past. At the future.